My brain hurts

[JennaDeeDooDah]

Just wait OP. Because even when you have your plan figured out and know what you want when and where... the good old MDE site will give you some fun. When you choose your FP+ at your 60 day window, you will be given a list of options to choose from. They may or may not be similar to what you had planned. Never fear, you can rearrange most of your FP+ selections in the next few days... but what a pain.

This is true. My tip is to make sure you initially select FP+ times as far from when you are planning to book as possible. That makes it easier to go in and change the times. So, for example, if you are wanting Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, and Splash Mountain in the afternoon, select morning times. The system will not show you available times if you have a FP+ reservation during that time. If all of your reservations are far from when you intend to use them, you will have more options available for when you are hoping to reserve them. Hope that makes sense.

 

[disney world dreamer]

i rather enjoy the planning.

i've made FP+ selections 3 times now since the introduction and its so easy in my opinion.

i schedule my ADR's well in advance of the FP+ window so i know when and where i'm eating.

then i decide which FP+ selections i want to make well in advance of the FP+ window.

when the window opens i select my FP+ and pick the option that best fits even though most of the time it doesn't really work well at all.

then i just go in and tweek the times.

as and example this is what my FP+ are for one of my MK days in april...
-big thunder mountain: 12pm-1pm
-splash mountain: 1pm-2pm
-space mountain: 5:05pm-6:05pm

i plan on going to thunder mountain near the end of my FP+ time, splash mountain near the beginning FP+ time and space mountain near the end of the FP+ time.
this gives me a lot of time before my first 2 which are right near each other and then a lot of tiem between my 2nd and 3rd so i can do a number of attractions in between.

i've been able to get a 4th FP+ in the past even with an evening 3rd FP+ time.

perhaps after you successfully plan and experience FP+ you'll feel differently about it.

 

[pjhootch]

This is true. My tip is to make sure you initially select FP+ times as far from when you are planning to book as possible. That makes it easier to go in and change the times. So, for example, if you are wanting Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, and Splash Mountain in the afternoon, select morning times. The system will not show you available times if you have a FP+ reservation during that time. If all of your reservations are far from when you intend to use them, you will have more options available for when you are hoping to reserve them. Hope that makes sense.

This is really good advice. I did not get the idea at first and was super frustrated. I had to move things around a lot in order to try to build in some flexibility. I am so glad my kids are all grown up now. I really do not envy you guys that are still subject to the whims, moods, tempers, sleep deprivation and over stimulation of young children. There is something really wrong with spending hours and hours planning to not waste hours and hours standing in line. It took me several days of some fairly intense planning to work out a schedule that allows us some wiggle room to (hopefully) be spontaneous.

Wow. Planning for days to have some spontaneity for a few hours two months from now. The irony amuses me.

 

[IrishNYC]

Here's what I do to make it easier, although I know not everyone loves this level of planning, but I enjoy it...take it for what it's worth:

Well in advance of the ADR and/or FP+ selection window, I create a calendar of our day to day schedule (I use excel) to show which parks I plan to attend on what days. I break it down by breakfast, am park, lunch, pm park, dinner, emh and late night. I use the crowd calendar info from UT to help determine my method. Obviously not all of these blocks are filled in with activities (although some say "sleep in" or "pool time" to build in breaks).

When ADR's are avail, I book them based on my park schedule and input on my calendar.

When FP+'s are avail, I book them based on my park and ADR schedule--this isn't as hard as you may think, and it's way easier if you print your calendar to have in front of you while you book your FP's.

You can TOTALLY switch things around and maneuver to make them work for your plan/ADR schedule. That said, on first pass, you may need to just accept what the system is giving you, but then you can go back in and change the times to better suit your schedule.

This is exactly what I did. I booked after my 180 mark had passed, planned what days I'd be in which park, and still got every single ADR* I wanted, including a pre-opening CRT. I put them on my calendar/spreadsheet. Then DH and I looked over all the rides, decided what we wanted to ride most, or what was most important DD5 see/do/ride, and after studying maps of the parks I put approximate times we wanted for each FP+. When 60 days came 10 days ago, I didn't really care what I got, as long as I got the greatly desired A&E, and I did on my first try, at 10 minutes after my penciled time desired. The rest of the FP+ was cake, and I've actually continued to tweak it a bit almost every day, including tweaking ADR times.

*I did originally overbook ADRs because DH had no desire to plan things so far in advance, but as we got closer and he was talking Disney talk with a coworker who's going right after us, he woke up a bit and started checking out restaurants and rides. I ended up adding more ADRs based on his desires, then the weekend before FP+ day we sat down and eliminated all but 8 of them. We're about 50 days out now and I'm d.o.n.e. My next obsession is packing. And I still need to keep it all a secret from DD5, who asks almost daily when can we go to Disney. She thinks we're going when she turns 7 in 2 years. I can't wait to wake her up the day we leave.

ETA: Using Google Calendar set to "week view" makes it super easy to lay out your days. You can even color code everything. Here is a shot of mine from a few days ago.

 

[Mickey&Mouse]

ETA: Using Google Calendar set to "week view" makes it super easy to lay out your days. You can even color code everything. Here is a shot of mine from a few days ago.
View attachment 81720

What a great tool! I put in my travel dates and it has already pre-filled my flight info & resort stay from my gmail account. Thanks for sharing!

 

[IrishNYC]

What a great tool! I put in my travel dates and it has already pre-filled my flight info & resort stay from my gmail account. Thanks for sharing!

I know, right? I was doing spreadsheets in excel then that little lightbulb in my brain came on. So easy and now it's on my phone too.

 

[amcnj]

This is true. My tip is to make sure you initially select FP+ times as far from when you are planning to book as possible. That makes it easier to go in and change the times. So, for example, if you are wanting Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, and Splash Mountain in the afternoon, select morning times. The system will not show you available times if you have a FP+ reservation during that time. If all of your reservations are far from when you intend to use them, you will have more options available for when you are hoping to reserve them. Hope that makes sense.

Ok, I must be a little slow. Can you further explain the benefit of making the initial fp+ times as from when you really want them? I am not catching on. Are you saying that if you made your first one for a time your really wanted, then when you went to make the other the other two, the system would not show times anywhere near the time of the first one?
Thanks!

 

[JennaDeeDooDah]

Ok, I must be a little slow. Can you further explain the benefit of making the initial fp+ times as from when you really want them? I am not catching on. Are you saying that if you made your first one for a time your really wanted, then when you went to make the other the other two, the system would not show times anywhere near the time of the first one?
Thanks!

Odds are, you aren't going to get the FP+ times offered to you are the time you are wanting them in one of the 4 initial options Disney gives you. Let's say that you want to do Splash Mountain at 10:00, Thunder Mountain at 11:00, and Space Mountain at 1:00 after lunch. Odds are, of the 4 options Disney gives you, those will not be the exact times on any of the options. One option might have Space at 10:30, Thunder at 12:00, and Splash at 3:00, another has Splash at 6:00, Space at 7:30, and Thunder at 9:00, another offers Splash at 10:00, Thunder at 3:00, and Space at 5:00, and the last one might offer you Splash at 9:00, Thunder at 10:00, and Space Mountain at noon. Now, you might be tempted to select the first option or their last option since those are closest to your desired times. I recommend selecting the second option, though, and here's why. You still want Splash Mountain at 10:00, Thunder Mountain at 11:00, and Space Mountain at 1:00 because that works best with your current touring strategy. You have every intention of going in and altering the times you had selected. If you chose the first option, when you go to chance your Splash Mountain time, you will not see times that would overlap with the 10:30 Space Mountain FP+ time (so nothing from 9:30 - 11:35) or that overlapped the Thunder Mountain time (so nothing from 10:05 - 12:05). So, in order to get Splash at 10:00, you would have to go ahead and move both Space and Thunder. If you select the option that has all the times in the evening, when you go to change your Splash Mountain time, they will likely have options that start as early as 9:00 and go until the evening when that first FP+ you reserved starts. It's just a lot easier to change to the time you want if you don't have any FP+ reservations currently in that time. Once Splash gets changed, you can change your Thunder Mountain FP+ time and, again, since you are wanting morning, the only current reservation the system will be working around will be your Splash reservation (which is currently where you want it).

 

[disney world dreamer]

Ok, I must be a little slow. Can you further explain the benefit of making the initial fp+ times as from when you really want them? I am not catching on. Are you saying that if you made your first one for a time your really wanted, then when you went to make the other the other two, the system would not show times anywhere near the time of the first one?
Thanks!

you have to select all 3 at once.
then they give you 4 time schedule options.
its believed that if you pick the time option that works the least for you that when you go back to tweak the times you have more of a variety of times to choose from and you can find one that best suits you for each FP+ selection.
personally though i choose to pick the option that works the best even if it doesn't work that well and then i tweak my times and i still am able to choose a much better time that suits me.

 

[Belle61513]

You are the "Anti-Staggs"

OMG totally. When I read that article I was like...ummmm no, no one is getting their $'s worth (imo) by letting their vacation "unfold naturally"...

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

I completely understand where you are coming from OP. My heart goes out to people planning their very first WDW trip. Our last trip was a few months before the FP+ testing/rollout began. Like a pp stated, FP+ takes planning a Disney trip to a whole new level. We were so uncertain about things and what is now required to have a successful, accomplished trip that we postponed plans to go back this spring. We love WDW, but this is all just a bit too much for our family at this point in time of our lives. I think we might be more ready to take on this kind of planning/scheduling at some point next year. If not that then probably a Disney cruise instead

 

[Pinfeathers & Golly Fluff]

Oh boy, I didn't realize that once the insanity of just planning out which day, ride, and desired time for each FP+ was complete that there was a whole other level to the scheduling! I just assumed it was like ADRs where you log in as early as possible and select the specific time you would like. Geesh! After trying to schedule everything we wanted to do in one day at AK I signed up for touring plans so I could just enter in all of the rides and attractions we wanted to do and then have it automatically optimize and then I could further tweak and see what FP times I should request. Definitely gave me back some sanity. I do enjoy planning but I was getting to the point of obsession! OP I feel your pain!

 

[JaxDad]

"OMG totally. When I read that article I was like...ummmm no, no one is getting their $'s worth (imo) by letting their vacation "unfold naturally"..."

Belle, I pretty much plan the way you do, in blocks of time. It allows you to be efficent but also spontaneous within that block. I even used it for trips to Europe, incorporating things like museum hours. I had a friend who went to Florence as part of his Italy trip and left Accademia for his last day. Well, the museum was closed that day, so he went all the way to Florence and missed Michaelangelo's David and other great works. Crazy.

 

[Mad Hattered]

My brain hurts even more now after reading the responses to this thread!

 

[Annchristine65]

Thanks everyone! I'm glad I'm not the only one and thanks to some of you for all the tips. Just when I thought I had everything set I went to double check the park hours and some of the EMH were changed from the last time I looked! UGH! Oh well, whatever will be will be at this point!